( Read the previous episodes of Journey to Centauri.) |
Journey to Centauri : Episode 16 Santiago stood over a cryocell with two of her lieutenants, plotting the movements of her warriors through the ship. As coded communications came in she used a slim etching tool to sketch locations on the semitranslucent curved top of the cell, oblivious to the cryogenically frozen face staring up from below."We are still playing cat and mouse with the armed staff of the ship," she said in clipped tones. "I am looking for leverage, and a place to move against them. We have weapons and a makeshift fortress, but we still lack all we need to thrive." "The command center?" asked the slender man to her left. She glanced over at him; Shen was physically unimposing but his veins ran with ice; she had never seen his fear control him. She shook her head. "Too difficult. If the Captain allows the Emissary into the command center we will have a foothold there, otherwise we will have to advance up the main arm one by one, with the crew picking us off at their leisure. We need another location to use as a diversion, or, if the Emissary fails, as our primary objective." "We’ve discussed the cryocells," grated the larger man to her right. Pierce, his sleeves rolled up to show forearms crisscrossed by hundreds of razor-thin scars. "We have a thousand helpless hostages right here," he tapped his shredder pistol on the surface of the cryocell in front of them. "Our last resort, and a good one, but it amounts to an ultimatum. For now, I am considering this location." She tapped a crude schematic etched into the cryocell. "Why not just remain in our current location?" asked Shen, his narrow eyes flitting to her face. "There is an old Samurai saying: ‘I run to fight, I run to defend.’ As long as we remain stationary they can use our position against us. Let them remain in their respective domains…the Captain in his command center, Skye in her hydroponics, Saratov in his maintenance ducts. They are utterly predictable; we must not fall into that trap." A two-beat tone sounded from her wrist computer. "The Emissary has reached the command center. Let’s shake them up a bit. Shen, move half of our people near the exit hatch. The other half will come with me. Leave Dr. Yang in his holding cell under guard. Now..." She turned, her movements graceful and defined. With precision movements, the warriors fanned out.
Continue on to Part 2... |
